Items

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  2020-05-30

  The Two Sides of COVID

  COVID has a double-edged coin valuation for me. 2020 was one of the best years of my life. While that was true for me, the exact opposite was true for so many others around the world. The photograph that is contributed to this archive is one of me and my fiancé, who got engaged in March of 2020, with our two pets and our brand-new vehicle getting ready to drive cross country in May of 2020. I had been let go from my job due to the pandemic, but my fiancé received a promotion, but that promotion required us to move across the country from Los Angeles to Camden, Arkansas. We had been talking about getting out of LA for years and this seemed like a calling from a higher power that it was the right time. This picture symbolizes the pandemic from my personal perspective because this move was the easier move I’ve ever done because everyone was at home, rather than at the hotels, restaurants, and rest stops that we needed to travel to in order to reach our new home. However, it also gave us a unique perspective to see the country without all of the people in it. When we were driving across Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas it was shocking how little traffic there was and how there seemed to be no one around. When we took a flight to check out prospective homes, there was no one on it! It was very strange to experience the isolation of COVID-19 right at the beginning because when we moved to a new town, no restaurants or events were taking place to try and meet people. It became one of the loneliest years of my life. When 2021 came around, things got back to normal in Arkansas and life seemed to begin again. I look back at this photo and remember the excitement of something new, but also the loneliness and isolation it brought.
• 
  2021-10-09

  Trip to Hawaii 2021

  Back in April of 2021, I had the opportunity to fly out to Hawaii for a quick vacation to see my fiance. In order to do so, my fiance’s parents and I were required to sign up with Hawaii’s Safe Travels Program and have a negative test about 72 hours prior to the trip. While flying, we were required to wear a mask during the whole length of the flight. Even out there, there were some parts of the island where we were even required to wear masks outdoors and in a spacious area.
• 
  2021-01-24

  An uneasy Quarantine

  My experience during the pandemic was a little unsettled. My fiancee and were in the process of selling our house when this new SARS virus started to really spread throughout the United States. Surprisingly we received many good offers and one was too good to pass up. We had a house lined up in a rural area of Florida but that deal fell through. It seems as the pandemic got worse and spread rapidly in the major cities a lot of other people began buying properties in rural areas driving the prices up so the deal fell through. We then began looking for a house in the suburbs of Fort Myers, Florida. In the meantime, I had to live with my parents while we closed on a new house. This was an anxious time as both of them are over 60 years old and my father has existing lung problems I was and am dreadfully worried about him. However, with some luck and a great deal of vigilance and adherence to recommended conduct by the CDC, none of us ever got infected. My fiancee works in a large hospital because of her knowledge of safety procedures and warning signs our family has so far never gotten sick. Despite a few people close to us contracting the virus including our neighbor and her brother who was frail before contracting Covid and is now fighting for his life. These are scary and painfull times.
• 
  2021-05

  Smelly Hands Are Clean Hands

  I welcomed my first child into the world at the very beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States, leaving my fiancé and me isolated at home with a newborn. After three months, we desperately needed a night away from our precious bundle of joy. The only restaurant open was a sketchy looking German beer garden blasting accordion music, but we were just thrilled to be spending some adult time together while our son was with my mother for the evening. Upon walking into the restaurant, I readily pumped some off-brand hand sanitizer into my hand, and nudged my fiancé to do the same. I rubbed my hands together as we were seated, and breathed a sigh of relief that we were free from the colicky cries of our beloved child for the night. Suddenly my nostrils filled with the stench of bottom shelf tequila. The hand sanitizer wasn’t simply off-brand, it had been homemade by the restaurant. It was as if whomever had concocted the sanitizer was convinced that the best way to ward off the COVID-19 virus (and the fear attributed to it), was to completely bombard the olfactory system with the smell of alcohol. My fiancé remarked that because the sanitizer smelled so horribly, it must be killing all of the germs; unknowingly, he became a perfect example of how individuals have come to associate certain scents, like alcohol, with the illusion of cleanliness. Thinking back on that experience, I find myself pondering just how effective their homemade hand sanitizer really was. Or, more than likely, was it a last ditch effort (forced into action by society’s panic buying of cleansers), to provide their customers a sense of security through unconscious sensory associations.
• 2020-10-04

  Now I Know How My UK Fiancé Felt With Boris

  I remember earlier in the pandemic Boris Johnson got sick. It was weird thinking the leader of England could get sick from such a deadly disease. How the country was panicking wondering what happens if the Prime Minister dies. I could only imagine how it must've been like. Now I actually get to experience it. Donald Trump is officially in the Hospital with covid, but it seems hes doing better then Boris did.
• 
  2020-08-29

  Strange Times

  ​When the covid-19 crisis began I was living in Bangkok, Thailand. My work visa was due to expire on April 7th and I had a flight to Australia booked on that date, but at the time the Australian Government was urging all citizens to return as quickly as possible because they feared that flights would be grounded. I called the Australian Embassy and asked what would happen if I became stranded without a valid visa and the man on the phone told me to change my flight to the next available one out, as things were changing by the minute and he couldn’t give me a certain answer. ​One option I considered was crossing the border to get a tourist visa, but then I saw on the news that many expats had crossed over into Laos to do just that, and had become stranded there because Thailand had suddenly closed its borders to all but its own citizens. Expats with homes, families, and jobs in Thailand were not allowed back into the country even though they’d acquired valid visas. My flight on April the 7th was cancelled so I rebooked for March 31st. An announcement was made that all flights to Australia would cease on the 25th of March, so I cancelled that flight and managed to find another one on the 21st, which was on the following day. I had no time to pack up my apartment properly or get my affairs in order. I left my fiancé in Bangkok thinking that I would be able to return to her in a month or so, but it’s now the end of August and it doesn’t seem as though Australia is going to let anyone out anytime soon. Throughout the covid-19 crisis I have been documenting my experiences. The diary focuses on my trip to India in early March, where I nearly didn’t get out in time, as well as my escape from Bangkok and the everyday life in lockdown I’ve been going through ever since. I send the entries to my fiancé via email each week. My hope is that the diary will end with our reunion, but my fear is that life will lead us along a different path.
• 
  07/17/2020

  Kiersten Camby Oral History, 2020/07/17

  This is an interview of Kiersten Camby about her experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Kiersten is a fulltime wedding planner. She lives with her fiancé and two German Shepherds in Spartanburg, South Carolina. At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Kiersten was temporarily furloughed from her job and spent most of her time in self-isolation. Her fiancé is an officer and continued to work. Kiersten was able to return to work 3 months after being furloughed and was able to slowly return to full-time status. During her time in self-isolation, Kiersten continued to be able to see her family to enjoy dinners and at-home movie nights. Kiersten and her family have taken the precautions to remain healthy and she hopes that life will one day return to normal.